GM will use technologies including GPS, distance-sensing, and vehicle-to-vehicle communications in the Chevrolet EN-V urban mobility concept

When many think of the future, they think of flying cars zooming from place to place. While we're not quite there yet, the development of self-piloted vehicles are in the making, and General Motors plans to deploy such vehicles by the end of the decade.

GM has announced that it is currently working on the tools needed to create self-piloted cars, such as radars, sensors, cameras, GPS, and other portable communication devices. These technologies combined will allow vehicles to navigate the roads partially on their own by the middle of the decade, and by the end of the decade, more advanced functions are expected to allow autos to drive themselves completely.

Two important aspects of the self-driving vehicle are vehicle-to-vehicle communication and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. This allows the car to learn more about vehicles around it, such as their speeds and locations, as well as surrounding traffic signals, accidents and detours.

GM will use technologies including GPS, distance-sensing, and vehicle-to-vehicle communications in the Chevrolet EN-V urban mobility concept. This system will allow the vehicle to dodge collisions, identify pedestrians, park itself, and pick-up the driver. All of this can be accomplished via systems placed in the vehicle or through a smartphone app.

"The technologies we're developing will provide an added convenience by partially or even completely taking over the driving duties," said Alan Taub, GM Vice President of Global Research and Development. "The primary goal, though, is safety. Future generation safety systems will eliminate the crash altogether by interceding on behalf of drivers before they're even aware of a hazardous situation. In the coming years, we believe the industry will experience a dramatic leap in activity safety systems, and hopefully, a dramatic decline in injuries and fatalities on our roadways. GM has made a commitment to be at the forefront of this development."

The Chevrolet EN-V urban mobility concept will be on display at the ITS World Congress this week.

A few years back, the fully autonomous Chevrolet Tahoe was the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge winner. Other companies, such as Google, have announced the development of self-driving vehicles as well.

So, in theory, when an accident is inevitable, this thing will kick in and decide where you're going to crash. I'm not sure I like that. I mean, what if it decides that the safest thing for you is to run over a little kid instead of plowing head-first into a utility pole? I, for one, would appreciate the choice.

Oh, and I'm just playing devil's advocate here. I realize this technology, if mature enough, could greatly reduce accidents and fatalities. blah blah blah

When presented in the situation like you described, most of the time drivers don't really have a choice. The time to react and make an intelligent decision is just too long. So most of time you will either react based on your instincts or (for some people) would get in stupor. Even when you react, there are too many dependencies. How your motor skills function, what is your driving skill and knowledge of the car that you are driving, what are the conditions on the road, what other drivers around you are doing, etc.

The problem I see is in how cautious to program the auto driver. It doesn't know if the other driver is actually in control or not and it might take unnecessary action...i.e. slam on brakes to avoid oncoming car going fast around a curve and then human driver behind computer driven car runs into it. If it had been grandma driving she would have reacted slower and then no rear end would have happened.

All I can say is I hope this takes the stupid driver out of the equation and make for a less stressfull ride to and from work. I see everyday multiple "stupid things" done by drivers and it can add to congestion and travel time.

This morning we all came to a stop several times on the freeway. Why? Because there was a stalled car pulled over to the far left shoulder with a highway patrol with it's lights on behind it. Why we needed to slow, stop and guack for that I don't understand. And I hope this will allow us to go past these kind of things as if nothing is wrong!

Sorry but I prefer to drive my own car. We've pretty much taken the human equation out of everything in our modern lifestyle today, but I draw the line at having my car drive me around. I think lots of people turning a wheel and pressing a pedal is their daily 'workout' lol.

I would agree with you IF there were not crazy drivers out there. People that speed much faster then traffic or slower then traffic, people weave in and out of traffic at unsafe distances, people that drive along the shoulder because they don't want to wait in traffic like everyone else. If people were actually reasonable drivers then I would agree with letting the person stay in control. But time and time again people show that they are not fit to drive and should be driven around.

Don't forget the crazy pedestrians though. They do mention this car has radar for that, but I wonder how well it would actually work. Since we're talking about urban driving, this is a constant problem in NYC where people often cross the road on a red light, right in front of your car.

Thanks for catching me on that. It does bug me when people walk in the middle of the road. I'm from a more rural area so instead of walking on the grass on the side of the road or right on the edge they walk directly in the middle of the lane.

Come to think of it, there's a whole slew of unknowns this system would have to deal with.

-Roadwork/Detours (there have been many instances when the GPS has told me to take a certain route and I discovered that it was blocked, with the detours controlled by the police (they may ask you to drive on the opposite side of the road as they halt oncoming traffic for example.

-officers routing traffic by hand (just yesterday I was asked by one cop directing traffic to drive through a red light for example).

-Road damage/potholes (this is something you can see visually, but I doubt would get picked up by a radar unless it's constantly evaluating the flatness of the surface

And those are just the things that come to mind after yesterday's commute! You're talking some serious AI + Machine Vision to figure this out.

I'm pretty sure there would be a manual override so you could control your car if something like what you said would happen. Just an example but think of I, Robot the cars in that movie drive people around but Will Smith was still able to do a manual override to drive it himself. I don't think they are saying we are going from driver to no driver instantly it would have to be something that gradually changed overtime as infrastructure was put in place.

quote: I would agree with you IF there were not crazy drivers out there.

That's never going to change. We can't take the "crazy" out of humanity.

And you know, not to get personal, but I notice on the Internet everyone ELSE is a "crazy" driver. Are you going to tell me you've never done any of those things yourself? I'm just saying, let's not get too high and mighty here.

quote: But time and time again people show that they are not fit to drive and should be driven around.

Okay I'm sorry but if someone is THAT bad of a driver their license will get revoked or suspended from all the tickets. You don't get "time and time again" these days. Accident's are going to happen. Simply saying "wrecks happen, make cars drive themselves" is a poor argument with poor supporting evidence.

You make it sound like it's Beyond the Thunderdome out there. Serious and fatal accident statistics have been on the decline.

I know it's human nature that one negative experience stands out over thousands of good ones, and you seem to be suffering from this. The huge majority of drivers out there are responsible and law-abiding. You see a few bad apples and are flipping out cause that stands out in memory. That's all.

Have you driven in Maryland recently? I actually see more bad driving then good driving. Now I am not saying I am perfect when it comes to driving. But I don't drive above the speed limit unless that is what traffic is dictating at the time. I drive with the flow. Also just because I like to see the technological advances we as humans are making doesn't mean I want it implemented. I doubt this kind of stuff will get implemented on a nation wide basis for many many decades. Would it be cool to live a world where your car drives you around and interacts with the infrastructure t help greatly reduce accidents. I like the technological side of it not the political stuff that a lot of DT readers put into it.

1) Instant lane changers...driving along driving along....boom guy who was next to you is now instantly in front of you, there's only a 1 in 10 chance he even flashes the turn signal for that whole .08th of a second as well.

2) Impatient people....there's lots of "lines" that form around here at certain intersections due to how populated the area is. Lots of people are apparently special and they don't have to wait in lines like everyone else....

I see this everyday, in fact in a couple hours on my way home I bet I'll see it again. Pisses me off not just for the potential to cause an accident but hey if I had to wait in this long ass line for 20-30 minutes before i got to the line...WTF gives you the right to zoom ahead and illegally make the turn in front of everyone else?

3) The third most common bad driving habit are people that can't make up their mind -- either what lane they are in or where the hell they are going.

You know the constant lane changers , I mean I change lanes too...but there are people that I see daily can't stay in a lane for more than 30-60 seconds before they change. Why does this bug me...well in rush hour traffic these chronic lane changers slow everything down even more.

The other thing that drives me nuts are people that truly look lost...just about turning onto a ramp...oops no -- let's quick swirve back onto the highway.....now lets drive super slow for the next 5 exits to make sure we pick the right one.....oh crap I want to be in that other lane...

I suppose the vehicle could be aware of which other vehicles around it are also auto-driven. If grandma's controlling her vehicle behind you, it would know a human was involved and slow to cushion the blow(s) instead of teeing you up for a huge smash from behind. If it knew the car behind you was auto-driven as well, they would communicate and both slow down. How fast they slow down would depend on whether the car behind THAT one (2 cars back) was auto-driven as well. And so on...

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